This application makes claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for METHOD FOR OUTGOING ABBREVIATION NUMBER LIST IN FACSIMILE earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Dec. 23, 1995 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 55745/1995.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for more easily sending an abbreviation number list during a use of a facsimile machine. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus used to facilitate finding a non-registered or lost abbreviation number when a user makes an outgoing call to a remote facsimile machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, a development of the communication tends towards accommodation of requirements of varied and several service functions of communication instruments. Particularly, communication using the facsimile in an office or a general home is becoming varied. One example of this trend is that of abbreviation dials.
Generally, in a facsimile machine, an abbreviation dial such as one touch dial or two touches dial is registered and we can simply dial such a registered number. A list of these registered abbreviation dial numbers can be printed as a confirmation function. In some methods for sending the abbreviation dial list, an output key of the abbreviation dial list is designated as a key in the facsimile. According to a typical order used with a typical display, the abbreviation dial list is outputted after an operation which requires several manipulations of output keys by the user. Therefore, if a user feels an urgency (in time or otherwise), this causes problems such as inconvenience.
On this matter, exemplars of the contemporary practice of the related arts include Koichi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,907, Facsimile Apparatus Having Urgency Message Transmission Function, Apr. 23, 1996) discussing a facsimile apparatus having a function to transmit a selected one of urgency messages to a selected one of destination stations, the urgency message transmitted and the destination station being selected by an operator at the start of an urgency message transmit procedure. Ohyanagi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,581, Image Communication Method And Apparatus For Recording And Printing Voice Message History Information, Oct. 17, 1995) and Ohyanagi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,518, Image Communication Method And Apparatus For Recording And Printing Voice Message History Information, Jun. 20, 1995) discuss a communication apparatus and method which includes a receiver for receiving voice messages, a recorder for recording a plurality of voice messages received by the receiver, a memory or storing history information indicating a history of the voice messages recorded by the recorder and a display for displaying out the history information stored in the memory. Orlen (U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,482, Facsimile Communication With An Active Addessing Display Device, Oct. 17, 1995) discusses a selective call signaling system capable of facsimile communication with a selective call receiver having an active addressing display comprising picture elements controlled by a plurality of first and second electrodes. The active addressing display comprises a controller controlling the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second drive signals. Hatamura (U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,528, Facsimile Machine Equipped With Appendant Information Adding Unit, May 9, 1995) discusses a facsimile machine including an appendant information adding unit for automatically preparing appendant information such as a cover page information and a call-back-message information and transmitting the information to the reception side together with he original images, whereby the appendant information is printed on a sheet to automatically prepare a cover page and/or a call-back-message page together with the original image sheets at the reception side. Bloomfield (U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,231, Sender-Based Facsimile Store And Forward Facility, Apr. 4, 1995) discusses facilities in the field of facsimile telecommunications, which includes a sender-based facsimile store and forward facility (FSAFF) which enhances facsimile communication through a public switched telephone network (PSTN) between a sender at a transmitting facsimile machine and an intended recipient at a receiving facsimile machine. From my study of these exemplars and from my general study of the contemporary practice and of the prior art, I find that there is a need for an effective method and apparatus for more easily sending an abbreviation number list during a use of a facsimile machine that uses such process and such circuitry as in the present invention.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for more easily sending an abbreviation number list during a use of a facsimile machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus being used to facilitate finding a non-registered or lost abbreviation number when a user makes a call to the other side of a facsimile process.
Another object of the present invention to provide a method for automatically sending an abbreviation dial list by a printer when either a user repeatedly inputs a non-registered number for a given number of times or the user stops dialing in the midst of dialing a registered number.
To achieve one or more of the above objects, the present invention may include the steps of: a first detection for detecting whether it is the registered number in case there is an input of an abbreviation dial number from the user; and a second detection for increasing a count in case it is not the registered number in the first detection step and for detecting whether the count value is more than a given value. The present invention may also include the step of printing the abbreviation dial list when the count value is more than the given value in the second detection step.